Setup (1 Viewer)

[Nikki Locke]

- Moved by admin-


OK, I have installed media portal, and now I have a number of problems.

I went into TV setup, and tuned the dvb-t tuners. It recognised lots of channels, which is good.

I told it to put the recordings in e:\recorded TV (same place as media centre keeps them).

I configured the TV Guide.

I started the program, and looked at the TV Guide - no program data for anything (but the channel logos show fine).

I started to watch TV. There was a few seconds delay between choosing a channel, and anything happening. Eventually, the sound starts, but the screen is black. As it happens, I use ultra vnc to control the media centre from my tablet. The picture appears on the tablet a bit, so I guess there is something wrong with direct x?

I have a large collection of pictures, stored on drive e also. Where can I tell media portal where these pictures are, so I can view them?

I have a large number of TV programs recorded by media centre. How can I view these using media portal?

These questions don't really fit with the thread subject - should I start a new thread?

Thanks for the help so far,

Nikki

 

[Nikki Locke]

- Moved by admin-

Thanks for the help. I have done the best I can to follow your suggestions.

1) There is no media portal configuration shortcut on my desktop, and none such can be found by searching the start menu. There are shortcuts for .

MediaPortal2 Service Monitor
MediaPortal2 LogCollector
MediaPortal2 TV Configuration
MediaPortal2

2) I have followed the instructions on setting up the EPG
I started with the tuner list, unticked all the irrelevant tuners (there is no analogue or dvbc available here, so I turned them off) and checked grab EPG said yes.
I went to the EPG page, made sure only grab EPG for same transponder was unticked, and enabled both EPG grabbing while recording and grab EPG when idle.
I went to the radio section, and unticked everything
I went to the TV section, unticked everything, then selected only 1 channel (BBC One) [note - in media centre, watching one channel will not load the guide for all channels - they seem to come in separate groups, but I haven't bothered to figure out why]
I went to manual, and selected refresh DVB EPG

After a short while, I opened MediaPortal2, but there was still no EPG information.

I am getting a TV picture now (I don't know whether it was watching with vnc turned off to start with that did it, or the overnight hibernate and restart).

 

[HTPCSourcer]

@Nikki Locke , I moved your posting into a new one in the MP2 section as otherwise things will get confusing when people answer from an MP1 perspective.

I have a large collection of pictures, stored on drive e also. Where can I tell media portal where these pictures are, so I can view them?

With the exception of TV the MP2 setup is entirely taking place from within the client app. RTFM can answer a lot of questions, in this case the Wiki is your friend . The settings part can be reached from the top menu, look for the wheel.

I suggest that you make yourself a little bit familiar with the settings part, especially the share setup. No doubt that there will be questions, yet hopefully a few less.

I went to the TV section, unticked everything, then selected only 1 channel (BBC One) [note - in media centre, watching one channel will not load the guide for all channels - they seem to come in separate groups, but I haven't bothered to figure out why]
I went to manual, and selected refresh DVB EPG

After a short while, I opened MediaPortal2, but there was still no EPG information.

EPG setup for the UK is very straightforward. This is asked - and answered - almost daily. There were some postings from @CyberSimian just today or yesterday about the same subject. If things don't work, don't hesitate to ask, but please provide logs for people to be able to analyze the problem.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Adding to the above:

In TV Configuration:

• Tick only one channel, e.g. BBC One
• Untick "Store EPG only for selected channels"
• On the DVB EPG page: tick
  Always try to fill holes
  Always try to update existing entries
  EPG grabbing while timeshifting
  EPG grabbing while idle (refresh every 120 min is usually more than enough)

The restart the MP2 Server service and check out the guide on the client. The complete EPG refresh may well take 20 minutes, depending on your local conditions.

 

[Nikki Locke]

It seems I was not patient enough with the EPG, or I had the wrong settings.

I went in and ticked all the TV channels in the guide setting, then to manual control/refresh. A few minutes later the guide had appeared. Hooray!

All I need to do know is to find out how to tell MediaPortal2 where my photos and music are.

One issue I do have is that fast forward/backward and skip forward/backward buttons on my media centre remote do not seem to work when watching media recorded with media centre (I haven't done any recordings using media portal yet).

 

[CyberSimian]

After a short while, I opened MediaPortal2, but there was still no EPG information.

The steps that you took to setup the EPG look correct to me. The UK broadcast EPG has grown over the last few years, with the addition of many minor channels. It is not clear exactly how long it takes to receive the complete (7-day) EPG, but it could be 10-15 minutes. If you did not wait that long, that might explain the absence of the EPG.

Unfortunately, I have never used MP2 (I use MP1), but I believe that as far as TV is concerned, MP2 is very similar to MP1, so the procedure to setup the EPG should be the same.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[HTPCSourcer]

I went in and ticked all the TV channels in the guide setting, then to manual control/refresh. A few minutes later the guide had appeared. Hooray!

Hhm, I bet that you PC will never ever enter automatic standby again. Please check posting #4 for some more information on how to set up EPG in the UK.

 

[Nikki Locke]

Thanks for moving the thread - I have obviously got confused over the different versions of media portal.

Why do you say my pc will never enter standby again? Is it something to do with selecting all channels? Are you sure bbc1 carries the full EPG for all the obscure channels, as my impression was that you need to tune to 4 or 5 different channels to get the full guide.

I followed your link to the wiki, and to the settings page - it shows a picture of the settings screen top level menu, but does not appear to contain any information on how to set which folders contain my pictures and music.

I have already been through the settings menu, and I could swear I had visited every likely option, but haven't found any folder settings yet. A hint where they can be found would be helpful!

Thanks again for all the help so far.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Why do you say my pc will never enter standby again? Is it something to do with selecting all channels?

Yes. EPG is loaded from every ticked channel. Every load can be 10-15 minutes. If you now tick, say 20 channels, it will take longer than your EPG timeout of 120 minutes. As a consequence MP will never signal the PC to be idle and therefore no standby is possible. You should limit the number of tickerd channels to the minimum.

I could swear I had visited every likely option, but haven't found any folder settings yet.

Okay, what about this one then : Media sources. You should also read the part about the Media Library. where the importer setup is explained in more detail.

 

[Nikki Locke]

Thanks for the hint - I hadn't made the connection between folders and media sources. The screen is very difficult to control with a remote control or a mouse - you have to use a combination of the two!

I have also looked at the input management settings. I tried to set my fast forward button to do what it says on the tin, but when I press the button, the blank configuration thing never reacts. So, until I figure that out, I have set skip to next track (which previously seemed to just make the video stutter a bit) to do fast forward, and skip to previous to do rewind.